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Police forces across Ontario routinely conduct diversity training, anti-racism initiatives and outreach programs aimed at better connecting with minority communities. Many have been doing so for well over a decade. But it’s hard to know what difference that’s made in the absence of hard data.

An inquest jury recommended further training initiatives this past week specifically to defuse “unconscious bias” on the part of officers. The panel, which looked into the police shooting of Jermaine Carby in Brampton two years ago, was right to highlight racial profiling as an issue that still demands action.

But what’s needed, as well as more training, is a comprehensive way to measure the effectiveness of what’s been done so far. That’s a necessary first step toward making it better.

Mandatory collection of race-based statistics on policing could provide key insight into how current programs are having an impact on the street and in communities throughout Ontario. That’s a key recommendation of the Ontario Human Rights Commission in a submission to the province on changing the Police Services Act.

As part of a broad blueprint for reform, the commission is urging Queen’s Park to require every police force in the province to establish a permanent system “to record human rights-based data on all stops of civilians, use of force incidents, and interactions where officers ask about immigration status.”

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That’s not all: the data should be standardized so the record of various police services can be readily compared, and it should be publicly reported by police departments, not reserved for internal use.

With rare exceptions, police in Canada have been reluctant to undertake such a step. That’s why it’s important for the province to lead the way and demand collection, analysis and publication of statistics that could shed light on racial profiling by officers. This, in turn, would provide useful data on how well training and other initiatives have been working.

Jurisdictions that show solid progress could serve as a model for reform while services with a poor record could be pressed to address the systemic discrimination within their ranks.

Having numbers is key. Without reliable data, we can’t grasp the dimensions of a problem and it’s impossible to truly know what works and what doesn’t.

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